From our windows. Photographer David Firman

From Our Windows is a personal story, told through Polaroid pictures, of life contained within four walls. Set during the early days of COVID-19, the story explores the relationship of sanctuary to the now-viral world outside, separated yet connected through thin sheets of glass.

In the late 1970s, photographer André Kertész was living a parallel narrative. Old age and isolation—his wife had recently passed—left him looking through the window of his New York apartment, a story he told through Polaroid pictures and his 1981 book, From My Window.

Separated from Kertész’s by forty years, I see my work as a synchronous search for beauty in the face of loss.
From Our Windows was completed with a vintage SX-70 Polaroid camera, similar to the one Kertész used, and still-available Polaroid instant film. Whether the reason is isolation due to old age, ill health or pandemic, the SX-70 camera and film are well-suited to the occasion, allowing self-framed miniature prints to be created—self-sufficiently—within the spaces that confine us.

The companion book, From Our Windows, is available through my website and Winnipeg Architecture Foundation.
Website: David Firman Gallery

The exhibit is presented as part of the FLASH Photographic Festival and Design Month Winnipeg